Summary of Rand Desegregation Design Review and Comments by Reviewers.

Commission on Civil Rights, Washington, DC.

In May of 1973 the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights issued a request for proposals for the design of a longitudinal national study of the impact of school desegregation. A selection committee unanimously agreed that the proposal from the Rand Corporation was superior to the others, and in June 1973 a contract was signed with that organization. The final draft of the documents which delineate Rand's design were delivered to the Commission in September 1974. The documents were subsequently reviewed by a total of 26 persons, who can roughly be divided into four broad categories; Desegregation and Minority Student Education Experts, Distinguished Social Scientists, Federal Officials Resonsible for Desegregation Research, and U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Staff Members. All reviewers were asked to answer a 27 question multiple choice evaluation questionnaire and to prepare additional written comments. The four multiple choice response categories were: quite good, moderately good, moderately poor and quite poor. These were coded as 1.0 through 4.0, respectively. The overall average rating was 2.37. The written comments of the reviewers reflected a wide range of opinions. Taken as a whole the evaluation of the reviewers suggests caution in using the design, without modification, as a guide for a research study. (Author/JM)